 systematic attacks against the opposition-run municipality.){kind=link}
İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu has alleged that an investigation into staff at the Istanbul Municipality for alleged links to terrorist organizations is part of the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) systematic attacks on the opposition-run municipality.
The Turkish Interior Ministry in December 2021 began an investigation into 455 people working at the municipality and related companies accused of connections to Kurdish militants as well as more than 100 others allegedly linked to leftist and other groups. The ministry last week sent a report on the investigation to a prosecutor.
İmamoğlu, a member of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), claimed that the investigation his staff is facing is politically motivated and part of the government’s systematic attacks against them.
He also referenced the transfer of Judge Hüseyin Zengin, who oversaw İmamoğlu’s trial on charges of insult, from İstanbul to Samsun after expressing his intention to give İmamoğlu a suspended sentence.
After Zengin was replaced by another judge, the court on Dec. 14 sentenced İmamoğlu, a key opponent of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, to two years, seven months in prison and barred him from politics for allegedly insulting members of Turkey’s Supreme Election Board (YSK).
The sentence and political ban, if upheld by an appeals court, could disqualify İmamoğlu from running in the 2023 presidential election, leading opposition parties to accuse the government of attempting to eliminate a key opponent of President Erdoğan.
Court announced reasoned decision on mayor’s conviction
Meanwhile, the court on Wednesday announced its 17-page reasoned decision in İmamoğlu’s trial, saying he insulted the YSK members “in front of the press” and in a way that “damages their honor and dignity.”
The court also said the mayor’s sentence was not reduced because of his statements to the press during the course of the trial that show that he didn’t take the judgment by the court seriously.
İmamoğlu ended the years-long AKP rule in İstanbul when he defeated the party’s mayoral candidate twice in the local elections of 2019. He won a rerun election by a larger margin than the first, which had been canceled due to supposed irregularities.
The İstanbul mayor was tried for a speech in which he said the people who annulled the initial 2019 vote were “fools.” However, İmamoğlu said at the first hearing in January that his remarks, which were in response to a question from a reporter, were not aimed at the YSK officials but at Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu, who in an earlier statement used the same word against him.